Exploring Critical CS Teacher Education Program Design Through a Science and Technology Studies Approach

Recent calls to reimagine K-12 computer science teacher education have proposed critical visions of pre-service teacher education built on equity, justice, and ethics. Building on these calls, this position paper demonstrates how critical perspectives can be incorporated into K-12 CS teacher education programs by integrating texts from Science and Technology studies. Central to this approach is allowing teachers to gain proficiency in CS content while navigating the tensions of the transformative and oppressive nature of technology as they imagine their future pedagogy. By integrating the often separated strands of pedagogy, content, and justice, pre-service teachers were empowered to reimagine what computer science would look like for their students. This paper concludes by discussing how a Science and Technology Studies approach could be used for entire course sequences in CS teacher preparation programs and preliminary feedback from teachers in the first iteration of this curriculum.